Sweden: Movie on local terrorists

A new Swedish film is set to come out this Friday about Swedish jihadists. The movie is named "Det Svider i Hjartat" , translated as "The Aching Heart".



Why do young men, who have grown up in the safe bosom of Scandinavia, want to sacrifice their lives for Allah?

That is the question posed by a Swedish documentary that provides a glimpse into the world of young European Muslims who dedicate themselves to jihad, or holy war.

The film, "Aching Heart," will open in Sweden on Oct. 19 but has already gained much attention.

Part of the film is the story of two young Swedes with immigrant backgrounds - one from Ostermalm, one of Stockholm's poshest neighborhoods, and one from Kvanum, a tiny town in central Sweden - who left their homes in the 1990s to seek martyrdom in the wars of Chechnya and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

But most of the focus of the film is on Göteborg, Sweden's second-biggest city. This is where Mirsad Bektasevic grew up. The 20-year-old Swede with Bosnian roots was given an eight-year sentence in Sarajevo this summer for planning a suicide attack there in 2005.
(International Herald Tribune, English)

See also: movie homepage (Swedish and English).

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